carole berotte joseph, PH.D.
Dr. Carole M. Berotte Joseph retired from CUNY as University Professor and past President of the Bronx Community College. She became the 5th President of BCC in July 2011. Prior to returning to CUNY, she served as President of Massachusetts Bay Community College in 2005 in Wellesley Hills, MA and became the first person of Haitian descent to become a college president in the US. Currently, she is available for Consultant work through Berotte Consultancy Associates, LLC.
During her 45 year career in education, she held several leadership positions including: Deputy Chief of Party for FHI 360’s, USAID funded-project, Ann Ale, in Haiti. She was responsible for the launch, startup and implementation of this major literacy & teacher development project, and managed several sub-contracts with collaborating agencies, in partnership with the Ministry of Education. In the US, most of her career focused in Higher Education. She held several high level administrative posts, having served as Chief Academic Officer and Dean of Academic Affairs at Dutchess Community College/SUNY and Vice President of Academic Affairs at Eugenio María de Hostos Community College/CUNY.
Her career in higher education began at the City College of New York/CUNY, in Bilingual Education, where she served as School of Education faculty at both the Graduate and Undergraduate levels, for over 20 years. As a full professor with tenure, she was the recipient of several major grants which led to the establishment of the first Haitian Bilingual Parent & Teacher Training program (Project HAPTT). She served as the Principal Investigator and first Director of the statewide HABETAC, the Haitian Bilingual/ESL Technical Assistance Center in New York.
An expert in the field of bilingual/multicultural education, she is a socio-linguist by discipline. She co-edited a groundbreaking book entitled “The Haitian Creole Language: History, Structure, Use and Education,” (2010). She has lectured extensively, and has authored, translated and edited articles on education and immigration & language policy issues facing Haitian communities in the United States as well as in Haiti. She was among the pioneers who advocated for, conceptualized and implemented the original Dreamer’s legislation w/President Obama’s staff and a host of national leaders in Washington, DC to support higher education for undocumented students. Her campus, was in fact, the first to welcome “Dreamers” in CUNY. She served on the Advisory Board of the Community College Research Center (CCRC), at Teachers College Columbia University and AACC’s Presidents’Academy, to plan professional development for community college presidents throughout the US. She was one of 12 community college presidents selected by the US State Department to travel to various countries to assist in the implementation of the community college model internationally.
Locally, she Co-Chaired the Bronx Borough President’s Higher Education Consortium, the CUNY Chancellor’s Haiti Higher Education Task Force, which worked with a host of educational leaders and the Ministry of Education after the 2010 earthquake. As a staunch advocate for the establishment of the CUNY Haitian Studies Institute, she chaired the planning committee that made this entity a reality. It is currently housed at Brooklyn College.
She served on several national & international boards & commissions and served as Co-Chair of the Haiti Education Steering Committee, in Haiti, for a number of years. This effort was supported by the Kellogg Foundation.
She has served on the editorial boards of several refereed journals including the Journal ofHaitian Studies and Wadabagei.
Dr. Berotte Joseph was born in Haiti and grew up in New York City. She is fluent in four (4) languages. She has been featured in several Who’s Who publications and has received numerous prestigious awards, including the “Big Picture Gandi Award” from the City School Program in Boston, MA, the Haitian Americans United for Progress Award of Excellence and the NYS Bilingual Educator of the Year Gladys Correa Award. In 2007, York College presented her with the Distinguished Alumus Award for Excellence in Education & Administration. In May 2010, NYU honored her with the Distinguished Alumna Award for blazing the trail for others, setting forth a new educational model, and global perspective and service.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in Spanish with minors in French and Education from York College, CUNY; a master’s in Bilingual Education, specializing in curriculum development from Fordham University; completed advanced graduate coursework in administration and supervision at NYU which led to NYS Certifications as Principal and Superintendent of Schools. Her doctoral research focused on language attitudes among Haitians in the Greater NY Metropolitan area. She holds a doctorate in Sociolinguistics and Bilingual Education from the Department of Teaching and Learning at New York University.
